CASPIAN
Ten wyverns breached our wards—the first time that had happened since we’d taken this fortress a decade ago. The alarms barely finished their first wail before the beasts blotted out the sky.
A Kharvox led the pack. Our spies had reported rumors about alpha wyverns—cunning, cruel, and bred specifically for dragon-killing by the White Witch’s covens. We hadn’t expected one at our doorstep so soon. Definitely not leading a coordinated attack.
The Kharvox was nearly as massive as Drakken’s dragon form, easily forty feet from snout to tail. Jagged crimson scales covered its body, each the size of a hand and overlapping like armor. They looked forged in fire and drenched in blood.
The enemy pack split into three formations. Six came straight for Drakken and me in the air. One hung back, circling high above the battlefield to observe.The last three dove toward the courtyard, where soldiers scrambled into defensive positions.
I gripped Drakken’s scales tighter as he banked hard. “Fuck. These beasts have strategies. That’s not natural—someone’s controlling them.”
The dragon with shimmering black-and-gold scales spun mid-air, his spiked tail whipping around to pierce a wyvern clean through the chest. The creature’s scream cut off abruptly as it fell.
I held onto his scales. “Less spinning. More straightforward fight!” I yelled into the wind. “I’ve got your six.”
He listened and charged toward the Kharvox, roaring his fury. The deafening sound made me wince.
“Less roaring, more fire!” I flung a dozen cards toward the heads of the approaching wyverns in rapid succession.
In aerial combat, I was Drakken’s ace backup. My throwing skills and my ability to anticipate his movements made sure of that. These weren’t ordinary playing cards but spelled weapons, each enchanted with cutting runes and explosion glyphs so the wind couldn’t disrupt their trajectory. I never missed. It was my gift, my contribution to our partnership in the sky.
My cards sliced into all six beasts, cutting through tough hide, but they kept coming, barely slowed. These new breeds were far tougher than anything we’d faced before. The White Witch’s war mages had clearly upped their game breeding this new generation of freaks, probably feeding them both magic and human flesh.
To the deepest hell with the White Witch.
Battle raged in the air and on the ground. The windcarried the smell of ozone and rot from these beasts, making my eyes water. And the sounds they made—chittering like insects mixed with distorted shrieks that made my wolf want to claw its way out.
The dragon spewed a jet of blue fire toward the Kharvox, hot enough to melt stone. The alpha wyvern countered with its own dark orange flames. I hoped Aelindor was watching this from below while he led the ground defense. Wyverns shouldn’t be able to breathe fire, as they weren’t dragons. This was another modification. Another abomination.
I dropped flat against the dragon’s back to avoid being burned alive as the two streams of fire met. The air seemed to ignite. The heat was so intense, even through my enchanted clothes, that I felt my skin burning.
The dragon crashed into the Kharvox before their fires died out. They grappled mid-air in a brutal display of primal violence—biting with jaws that could crush steel, clawing with talons designed to rend flesh, tearing at each other with savage fury that sprayed blood in all directions. Their combined battle cries pierced my eardrums as I clung desperately to Drakken’s scales, my fingers finding purchase between the ridges. The force of their collision nearly threw me off.
As they engaged in brutal aerial maneuvers—barrel rolls, dives, vertical climbs—I waited for my moment. When a long-necked wyvern swept in to attack Drakken’s flank, I leaped from the dragon’s back onto the creature’s spine.
Only three of them remained, harrying us in the air. Flaming iron arrows from our archers flew toward theunderbellies and wings of the remaining beasts. The wyvern I’d landed on twisted its neck with unnatural flexibility, vertebrae cracking. Its massive jaw opened to reveal jagged fangs dripping with venom that hissed when it hit the air.
I brought my dagger down on its ugly skull with both hands and drove the enchanted blade through scales and muscle, through bone and tissue and whatever passed for a brain in these abominations. The beast shrieked and convulsed violently beneath me.
Without waiting for the wyvern to plunge to earth and take me with it in its death spiral, I kicked off its scales hard, leaped over twenty feet, and landed in a crouch on the dragon’s back.
Below us, the courtyard was pure chaos—fire and blood, screaming, soldiers fighting the three wyverns that had landed. Aelindor’s vines had caught one, crushing it like a python with its prey.
As the dragon tore the Kharvox apart—spraying crimson scales and gore, ripping out its throat and then its wings—I sent waves of my spelled cards toward the remaining wyvern. The last one, which had stayed out of the archers’ range, turned and fled, shrieking as it went. The sound carried for miles. It must be reporting to its master—this had been a probe, a test of our defenses.
And then, the battle wound down.
The dragon dove back toward the ground, then banked so hard he shook me off from about ten feet up.
I rolled to absorb the impact. If I weren’t a powerful shifter with enhanced muscles and bones, I’d have at least a twisted ankle or two.
Fucking dragon.
And everyone said I complained too much.
No time to curse him, though. I needed to get to the infirmary.
Nikolai had carriedthe girl inside when the wyvern attacked. I didn’t want him alone with her for long—not that I doubted his honor. He wouldn’t bite her without permission; we had rules about that. But I’d felt this strange possessiveness toward her ever since she’d snuggled against me on the bullet train back to base.
